Federal legislative and regulatory incentives and disincentives for industrial waste reduction

The Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) within the US DOE has recently initiated the Industrial Waste Reduction Program, which is designed to reduce industrial energy use and pollution by reducing the amount of waste materials generated. The Program's primary focus is to develop and commercialize waste reduction technologies and practices in conjunction with industrial partners. OIT recognizes that adoption of these technologies is often inhibited by an assortment of institutional barriers that are unrelated to technical or economic performance. Therefore, OIT is examining selected barriers to industrial waste reduction to help identify and remove impediments to wider technology implementation. This report examines the incentives and disincentives to industrial waste reduction that are provided in an assortment of legislation and regulations. The intent is to shed light on how our environmental laws affect industry's implementation of waste reduction, what particular problems exist with current legislation/regulations, and what general options are available for correcting any deficiencies. Our study was confined strictly to federal legislation and regulations. During the course of the study, (March and May 1991), we examined 16 pieces of existing legislation and their attendant regulations plus 22 pieces of proposed legislation. In addition, the authors consulted representatives from industry and from the government agencies administering or sponsoring the legislation. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is by far the most comprehensive and dominant piece of legislation affecting solid waste disposal. This is because RCRA, which governs, the management of both nonhazardous and hazardous waste, places the most restrictive requirements on industry. Other important pieces of legislation that exert a direct influence on waste reduction per se include the Clean Air Act and the Pollution Prevention Act. 90 refs., 12 tabs.